After Academia 1: Fireborn
by Higuchimon
Summary: [2/8] She awakens in a valley inhabited by those who tend to a sacred flame. She knows nothing of who she is or what is going on. And to find out the answers, she must learn what it is to burn.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Fireborn  
 **Character:** Asuka  
 **Other Characters:** TBA  
 **Word Count:** chapter: 5,022|| **story:** 5,022|| **Chapters:** 1/8  
 **Genre:** Adventure, Drama|| **Rated:** PG-13  
 **Challenge:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section J, #025, a post-canon fic; written for the Female Spotlight Challenge  
 **Challenge Location:** Diversity Writing Challenge  & Female Spotlight Challenge are located the Duel Monsters Writing Academy Forum on .  
 **Notes:** This takes place about seven years after graduation. Asuka is twenty-four.  
 **Summary:** She awakens in a valley inhabited by those who tend to a sacred flame. She knows nothing of who she is or what is going on. And to find out the answers, she must learn what it is to burn.

* * *

Her head hurt. Throbbed would be more accurate, as did every single part of her body she could imagine. Her fingers opened and closed, but there wasn't anything for her to grab onto. She tried to lift her head, wanting to see where she was and perhaps figure out what was going on. The moment she tried, yet another sharp pain, bright as silver, bright as the sun, stabbed through her head and she put it right back down. She'd try again when moving didn't make everything hurt worse.

The problem with that was that she didn't have any idea on when that might be. She didn't have many ideas on anything, except that wherever she was, it was hard underneath her and hot around her, and neither situation was one she especially found herself enjoying. She tried to swallow and coughed instead, tiny pricks of pain lacing her throat as well.

Whatever had happened, she never, ever wanted it to happen again. She wanted to know what it was just to make certain it never did.

"Over here!"

She flinched at the noise; it wasn't a voice she knew, and there was something off about that. She couldn't think of what, but there wasn't much that she was thinking of, aside from the pain, anyway.

Footsteps echoed, hurrying closer to her, and she knew there was someone there next to her. Warm fingers brushed against her skin and she pulled away. Hot, too hot, she didn't _like it_ , and she wanted the heat to go away.

"What is it?" A different voice and still not one that she knew. Again that something strange tugged and nudged at her thoughts, but she couldn't put it together, no matter how much she wanted. The pain wouldn't let her. The heat wouldn't let her. Nothing at all would let her.

"I think she's a human." That was the first voice. And of course she was a human. What else would she be?

Another set of scorching hot fingers, but they only touched her skin for a few seconds, hardly enough for her to realize they were there.

"I think you're right. We'll have to get her out of here and to the infirmary."

Yes, that sounded good. Infirmary, where she could put all of this together and not have to be hot all the time or hurt. She tried to move, only for both sets of hands to brush on her.

"No, stay where you are," the first voice said, but she couldn't help it, she wriggled and squirmed and gasped at the feeling of _such heat_. "Oh. Sorry."

Then the fingers were gone, the heat reduced just a little, and she breathed a fraction easier. She didn't know what was going on. They wanted to help her. That much was obvious. But why did their hands burn so much?

"Do you think putting her to sleep would help?" The first voice again. She wanted to answer the question, but she didn't even know the answer. She'd learned a few things about first aid in school but none of it applied here, not that she could recall anyway.

"I think we should wait for the healer. She'll be able to figure out what to do." The owner of the second voice didn't sound as if she liked that diagnosis, but what else could they do?

Whoever the healer was, it didn't take very long for her to arrive. Cool fingers, _blessedly cool_ , touched on her temples and the sides of her face and her throat.

"Definitely human. Which means the heat is probably scorching her right now. We'd better get her to the temple and get her taken care of there. Once she's awake we can get some answers and figure out what to do from there."

That still didn't make as much sense as she thought it should to her, but she didn't have the words to say that. She didn't have the words to say anything.

If she had, she probably would've said something to the extent of the fact she _was_ awake. But soft words chanted in her ears, sliding past whatever meager defenses she had, and soon enough a soft blanket of comforting darkness wrapped all around her.

* * *

Akemi watched as the strange human slipped into a deeper sleep, far more restful than the quasi-delirium she'd been in before. Tomomi's powers worked even on humans, something none of them had been certain of before sending for the angel.

"Can we lift her up now?" Misaki asked, eyes going in between the human, Akemi, and Tomomi. "Will it hurt her?"

"Not now that I've cast my spell," Tomomi said, rising and stretching out arms and wings both. "But be careful. I can't tell exactly what's wrong with her just yet. The burns are obvious, but other than that, it could be anything."

Akemi and Misaki both nodded, carefully moving to each side of the stranger and sliding their arms underneath her. Their heights differed too much to properly carry her between them, but they'd come prepared, to some extent. With some effort, they managed to get her to the stretcher brought in case they'd met any of their fellow warriors or mages who would need help after the shakeup.

They certainly hadn't expected to find an unconscious and burned human in the wreckage outside of the village, but now that they had, they wanted to get her on her feet and find out what she knew about what was going on.

Misaki concentrated on the stretcher once their burden lay on it and whispered a set of words underneath her breath that Akemi couldn't understand. Not that she'd ever tried; magic had never been her forte.

"Let's go," Tomomi said, lifting off the ground with a few graceful flaps of her wings. "The sooner we get to the temple better. She's not the only one injured."

That worried Akemi even more than she wanted to admit. The shakeup caused enough property damage as it was; to think that their friends and sisters had also been hurt only made it all that much worse.

Together the three of them headed back to the village, where repairs, healing, and questions were already underway. Seeing them bringing in a new injured person only slowed matters down for a few moments, as everyone who could spare the time glanced to see what was going on. Tomomi gestured them all back to their business; they could find out what was going on as soon as she knew something to tell them.

The stranger didn't move at all as they settled her into one of the few empty cots in the temple's infirmary. Akemi hoped that was because of Tomomi's spell and not any injuries they hadn't detected yet. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly strong just for surviving the shakeup in the first place.

 _I wonder what she's even doing here. Humans are hardly common travelers these days._

Tomomi settled down next to her and started her magic, weaving spells of healing along with potions. Misaki assisted with the magical part of things as best she could, while Akemi stood near the door and made certain no one interrupted.

Not that too many looked as if they wanted to, no matter how curious they were about the newcomer. There was too much else that needed to be done for bothering any of the healers as they worked on their various patients.

"There," Tomomi said at last. By now the sun had fallen behind the mountains, stretching out long tendrils of shadow over the enclosed valley. They'd brought the stranger there just about mid-afternoon, so far as Akemi could judge, and Tomomi and Misaki both sagged, their powers strained to their limits. "I think that's everything. I can't say for certain until she wakes up and we can ask her questions. That might not be until tomorrow, though."

Akemi strode over and nudged both of her childhood friends to their feet. "Until then, you two need to get something to eat and some rest yourselves. Otherwise, if there is something you need to do, you won't be able to."

All these years of healing and magic, and she still reminded them of how much they needed to take care of themselves. Both of them tended to forget when in the heat of their working.

Tomomi pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, covering a deep yawn. "I think you're right. She'll be safe enough here."

"Things are getting into better shape outside, too," Misaki said, peering out one of the small windows. "It doesn't look as if there was as much damage as there could've been."

Akemi and Tomomi both relaxed at that. They still needed to know more about what had happened to start with, but at least that was something good.

Akemi jerked her head toward the door. "Food. Both of you. Now."

"You too," Tomomi reminded her, lips curving to a smile. "You pushed yourself hard as well today."

There just wasn't any arguing with these two. Akemi had tried it before and always came out on the losing end, at least when it came to feeding and taking care of herself.

Together the three headed to where the cooks would be putting an evening meal together. Akemi spared one glance behind to the sleeping human, and wondered what they had yet to learn.

* * *

She walked through endless halls, making her way up staircases and through rooms. No matter where she went, one point held true: she couldn't touch anything. The only exception was her walking itself, and she made no sounds when she did. A ghost might've made more noise, but not by much.

The halls and staircases and rooms held another sameness: they were empty. No one else appeared here. They were all plain, but the more she looked, the more she thought that they shouldn't be. The walls held places where something – perhaps paintings or tapestries – should've been, but only vague images rested there now, tiny remnants of a magnificence that should've been.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" At least here she could talk. The place she only vaguely recalled before she found herself here hadn't been like that. Though she thought perhaps it was her own problem, not where she'd been, that kept her silent there. Perhaps once she returned, she could talk? If she returned?

Regardless, her voice now bounced back from the empty walls around here, not answered and ringing faintly hollow. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to feel as completely alone as she was.

 _What is this place?_ It felt like she should know it. It felt as if she should know it better than any other place in the world, but not a single flicker of memory offered a name for it.

For that matter...she shuddered and tightened her grip. She didn't want to think what she'd just realized. Thinking it would admit that it was true, and she really did not want that.

But the thought remained in her mind, clicking neatly into places that she'd refused to pay attention to.

 _I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am._ Her stomach twitched and heaved at that. She didn't know _anything_ that she could put a definite finger on. She was as blank as the walls around her, the floor beneath her, the ceiling above her.

And she hated it. She didn't know what she'd lost, only that she'd lost it, and she wanted it back with every ounce of her heart.

Lost or stolen, she wondered suddenly. Had there been an accident? She'd been hurt; she knew that much. But had it been on purpose or not?

Her eyes hardened. She would have to find out and she'd do all that she could to get everything that she'd lost back, no matter what she had to go through to do it. She couldn't do anything else. She certainly couldn't just let it all vanish through her fingers.

The halls and ceiling and floor faded from around her and she found herself opening her eyes. For one moment she hoped that she would recognize where she was, _remember_ where she was, and she could build herself up from that.

But wherever she was, she didn't know it.

Slowly she looked around, trying to see as much as she could. She lay on a comfortable cot, a woven blanket tucked around her shoulders. It was rough, but clean, a rich dark blue shade that she found comforting. Stretched over the cot and underneath her was another blanket in a lighter shade of blue, along with a firm pillow underneath her head.

She was in a small room, little more than an alcove, really. None of the walls had a proper door; three were actual walls, one with a window cut into it, the other two lined with shelves and drawers, each one full of tools that made no sense to her. The fourth wall wasn't a true wall at all, but probably the only way out, in lieu of a door. A curtain of some kind, woven in much the same style as the blanket, but from different materials, hung from the ceiling, blocking her view of whatever was out there.

She started to sit up, remembering as she did how much it had hurt to try that the last time. Whatever had happened between now and then, this time there wasn't the same shrieking pain or blazing heat and she managed to be a little more vertical.

"Hello?" She didn't like that she could hardly recognize her own voice. From what she remembered of being in that strange place of halls and rooms – a dream, of course – it didn't sound all that different. That was a little reassuring.

An odd swooshing noise, as of something flapping, came from the other side of the curtain, which was pulled back a few seconds later. She blinked several times at the sight of who did that.

"Good morning!" This person had wings. This person could fly. This person _was_ flying.

She looked over at her own shoulders to see if she had wings. Did everyone have them and that was among the things she'd forgotten?

If so, she certainly didn't have them now. She wore a simple kind of smock, and now she noticed a few light scorch marks scattered on her flesh. They didn't hurt, which was likely why she hadn't noticed them before.

The winged person politely cleared her throat. "Good morning?"

Oh. Yes. "Good morning." She hesitated before going on. "Where am I? Who are you?" Another hesitation. This could be risky, but what else could she do? "And do you know who I am?"

That got a slight tilt of the winged one's head, then she shook it in negation. "I see we're going to have a lot to talk about. Let me check you over first, though. Akemi and Misaki will be here shortly and they'll want to talk to you, too."

"Do I know them?" She didn't know if she wanted to or not. If she did, then she'd have friends who could help her put her life back together, even if she couldn't remember them herself. If not, she'd be on her own in this.

"I'm afraid not. None of us know who you are," the nurse-winged-woman spoke with all gentleness. "We were hoping that you could tell us."

She nodded a little, fingers tightening on the edge of the blanket. All alone, in a place that she didn't know and with people she didn't know, in a situation that she didn't know. She wondered if people had nightmares about that. She thought it wouldn't be wrong if they did.

"I'm Tomomi. Do you duel?" The angel hesitated as she checked the woman over, then laughed a small, rueful laugh. "You probably don't know how to answer that, do you?"

"I'm afraid not." It sounded important. In all truth, the first answer that had risen to her lips was to say _yes, of course I do._ But not knowing why kept her silent, and the realization that this was something else, perhaps something _vital_ , that she'd lost swam through her.

Footsteps sounded, much different from the fluttering of Tomomi's wings, and the curtain across the door lifted again. On the other side stood an armored warrior, her helmet tucked underneath one arm, cautious eyes peering in.

"Tomomi?"

"Right here," the angel replied, not looking up from where she wove her fingers and began to mutter under her breath.

The stranger looked at the woman on the bed and nodded toward her. "Good morning. I'm Akemi. And you are?"

She hoped this wasn't going to become a regular kind of question and answer deal. "I don't know. I can't remember anything at all."

Akemi's mouth turned downward. "I see. I've heard about this happening before."

"So have I," Tomomi said, finishing whatever it was she was doing and coming over to hover at the foot of the cot. "How long it lasts depends on what happened. If it's magical, there are any number of ways to reverse it or recover the memories. If it's not, then time usually ends up fixing it, once the person has recovered their health." She turned toward the stranger. "So you don't need to worry a lot about it. We'll know who you are sooner or later!"

 _And I'll know who I am, too._ That sounded much more reassuring than strangers knowing who she was. Still, she wasn't going to just sit and wait for her lost life to return to her as if she were some kind of a sponge wanting for water.

"So, just where am I? And who are all of you?" She waved one hand, trying to indicate that she wanted more than just names from them. Who were they, what was this place, why did they take her in instead of...well, anything else that they could've done?

Tomomi and Akemi glanced at one another, then back at her. "You're in the Temple of the Sacred Flame," Akemi said at last. "This is a place where spirits and beings of every type connected to fire are welcome." She indicated the flame designs on her armor. "If they are not connected to the fire, then if they respect it's power and how useful it can be, then they can stay, so long as they are useful to the community as well."

Tomomi raised a hand. "I'm of Light and a Magician myself, but they needed a healer, so I came to stay here."

"And I'm a Fire mage," a new voice spoke. From behind Akemi stepped a young girl, clad in a simple black robe and with a cascade of blonde hair down her back. "You can call me Misaki."

She nodded a little, fingers still picking at the blanket. "I don't know what to call myself."

"I gathered that much," Misaki said with a bit of a casual shrug. "So why don't we find a name that we can use until you remember your real one?"

"Not a bad idea." Akemi nodded in agreement. "We can't just call you 'you' all the time."

 _Doesn't mean that I have to like it._ Not having her own name did not feel right at all. But she nodded anyway. "Any ideas?"

Misaki tapped long fingers on the edge of the cot. "Names are powerful tools," she said after a silent moment or two. "They can be used for protection or to hurt someone else. Keeping your real name secret, even when you learn what it is, wouldn't be a bad idea. But the name that you use now should be something that you like, because it's still going to be a part of you. So whatever it is, it's not just something that should be chosen randomly."

"It should also be something that's pleasing to the fires," Akemi added. "They could have something to do with this."

"Fires?"

"The Sacred Flame that lights up everything," Tomomi told her, worship in her voice. "It protects this land from all those who would harm it. It's been like that forever."

"We've heard tales of armies of evil beings that have tried to conquer other lands in this world," Akemi said, her hands flexing on the hilt of her sword. "But the power of the Sacred Flame keeps them away from here, no matter what."

The amnesiac woman nodded. She still didn't quite understand all of this, but figured that could come later.

"What kind of names would suit, then?"

"My mother's name was Shula," Tomomi offered. "She wouldn't mind you using it, I'm sure."

 _Shula._ She tasted the name in her mind, then slowly shook her head. "It doesn't feel like it's me." She didn't think any of them would, but that one didn't click right in general.

"What about Azar?" Akemi suggested. "That was what my parents were going to name me."

That one still didn't click right. Misaki tilted her head back, eyes distant. "Keahi."

Her mind closed on that name like a trap. It was not hers, not in the way another name was, had been, and would be once again. But it was still hers in another way altogether. She repeated it softly, tasting it in every way that she could. "Keahi."

Yes. That was it. She nodded. "I like that one."

"All right, then." Misaki nodded, a soft and warm smile on her lips now. "Welcome to the Temple of the Sacred Flame, Keahi. May you be blessed with eternal warmth and light."

"Thank you," Keahi replied, not at all certain of what else she could say.

Tomomi came a little closer to her. "Now that that's settled, do you think you could try getting up? You should be healed enough. The magic works fairly quickly. I wouldn't suggest running any marathons for a few days, but you should be able to walk around for a while."

"I'll try." Keahi looked down as she swung her legs over the side. She really did feel better than she had before, so that much she could figure out was true, about how quickly the spells worked.

 _I wonder if I could do magic like that._ Perhaps she'd get a chance to try as she worked to get her memories back.

She pushed herself to her feet, the three other women stepping back to give her room to do so. Her legs shivered and her arms trembled, but she found herself staying upright.

"Very good!" Tomomi approved. "What about walking? Can you manage that?"

"I'll find out." Keahi set her jaw and moved one foot forward. So far so good. Another step. And another. So far, everything seemed just fine.

Her legs shook a little more and she started to lose her balance, tipping forward. Akemi reached to support her with a hand on one shoulder.

"Don't push yourself too hard. We still don't know exactly what happened to you."

Keahi turned toward them as best she could right now. "What do you know?" It had to be more than what she knew.

"You should probably sit down for that," Tomomi suggested. "It could take a while to get sorted out."

That sounded good enough to her. She turned around and made her way back to the cot, settling down on it. Then she looked back at the others expectantly. The three of them looked at one another, then back to her.

"Everything started last night, as far as we can tell," Akemi said. "The Sacred Flame protects us from outside attack, but earthquakes and other natural events can still happen here."

"So was it an earthquake?"

"The ground shook, yes," Tomomi said, eyes still going back to the others. "But it wasn't an actual earthquake. It was something else. Something magical. We could tell that much, but not who caused it or why."

Misaki picked up the tale. "There are a few ways that something magical could've happened but it wasn't a malicious attack. Some of the others are checking into that. What we know is that we don't know enough."

"Kaori is still organizing the cleanup and finding out exactly what the damage was," Akemi added. With a quick look at Keahi, she explained, "Kaori is the leader of everyone here."

Tomomi started to say something, but Akemi quickly shook her head, her cheeks tinted just the faintest touch of red.

"I've told her about you," Akemi continued, "and she wants to see you once you're recovered enough. I should probably let her know about your amnesia, though."

Keahi wasn't going to argue about that. The more people who knew, perhaps the better chances they could come across someone who knew who she was, or how to restore her memories. Not to mention that now that she was back on the cot, she wanted to close her eyes and get a little more rest.

"I think that walk took more out of me than I thought," she murmured, arranging herself more comfortably under the blanket. "Is it all right if I take a nap?"

"Of course," Tomomi said without hesitation. "The magic's not going to give you back all of your strength right away. You're going to have to build it up again. Sleeping will help. I'll make sure there's something for you to eat when you wake up."

Keahi nodded, eyes already closing. In possession of at least a little more than she'd woken up with, she let herself slide away.

* * *

Tomomi motioned the other two out of there as the newly named Keahi slept. Neither Akemi nor Misaki put up a word of protest; they had much to discuss still, and it would be best to do it where she wouldn't be disturbed.

"She doesn't know how we're different," Tomomi murmured once they were two hallways away. "She doesn't even know that she's human and not from this world."

"Are we certain that she is?" Misaki asked, as practical as any mage could be. "There are plenty of spirits and people who don't have cards of any kind. She could be one of those."

"I don't think it's very likely. There's always something that sets a human apart from a spirit. In this case, I don't think I've ever seen any kind of an outfit like hers before."

Tomomi waved one hand in the general direction of their new friend's room. "It's not armor. It's not mage robes of any kind. Or just robes, for that matter. You _could_ be right, but until we know otherwise, I think we should presume that she is human."

"Maybe someone else can figure it out?" Akemi wondered. "Or at least get her memories back. She'll know then, wouldn't she?"

"We can hope." Tomomi turned a harder glance on Akemi. "Why didn't you want her to know?"

The woman warrior shifted her gaze away, that pink tinge returning to her cheeks. "Because it isn't that important. And she'll find out eventually anyway. I don't think we should overload her with too much information so soon."

"You could be right," Tomomi agreed, Misaki nodding as well. "There's just too much that we don't know and I don't like most of what we do know."

Misaki's voice dropped lower. "We'll have to be careful with what we tell people of her as well. Someone _did_ cause that earthquake and until we know who and why, there are those who are going to think she might've had something to do with it."

"How do we know she didn't?" Akemi wondered, her voice even lower. "We don't know anything about her aside from the fact she _might_ be human. And even being human wouldn't mean that she can't pull tricks like that."

All three fell silent, until Tomomi broke it with a deep sigh. "She's my patient, that's what she is. And until we do know, we're not going to treat her as if she's the guilty party. Is that clear?"

When it came to how one treated the patients under the care of the healers here, only those healers had the final word. Akemi and Misaki both nodded, though both would've been the first to admit they weren't bothered by this at all. Keahi just did not come across to either of them as the type who'd cause the damage they had to deal with.

"I'll go let Kaori know what's going in," Akemi said after a few tense moments. "Maybe she'll have some ideas on what to do about Keahi's memories."

"And if not, we're in no worse condition than we are now," Misaki agreed, eyes twinkling as she settled her hat firmly on her head. "I'm going to check around and see what else is going on. Maybe I'll find out something."

"I'm going to have someone make that food I promised her. I hope she doesn't have any allergies." Tomomi frowned at the thought, already wandering off to where the kitchens lay. She thought she remembered most of the common allergies and if anything new turned up, she would have something ready for a backup plan. She enjoyed healing, but she preferred it by far when she didn't accidentally hurt her patients while trying to heal them.

There was also an element of challenge in all of this. No one here knew enough about humans to say what was good for them or what wasn't. Figuring all of this out would be fascinating, and possibly useful in the future, if they ever met any other humans. Assuming, of course, that Keahi _was_ human.

Safely tucked away under her blanket, Keahi slept, her fingers twitching against the fabric, head tossing silently, as behind her eyes, a voice called a name that she no longer remembered: neither the name nor the voice that called it. But her lips framed a name nevertheless, and when she awoke, it was with the feeling of having lost something dearer than she could've imagined.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Akemi is Tactical Warrior, also known as Command Knight. Misaki is Fire Sorcerer. Tomomi is Angel in White, also known as Numinous Healer. Angel in White/Numinous Healer is a trap card, but I'm treating it as if she's a monster spirit who has a card of her own, just one that hasn't been released yet. Kaori is Valkiyrian Knight.

Also, Azar means 'fire' in Persian, while 'Shula' means 'flame' in Arabic. And Keahi is Hawaiian for 'the fire'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Fireborn  
 **Character:** Asuka  
 **Other Characters:** TBA  
 **Word Count:** chapter: 5,062|| **story:** 10,084|| **Chapters** : 2/8  
 **Genre:** Adventure, Drama|| **Rated:** PG-13  
 **Challenge:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section J, #025, a post-canon fic; written for the Female Spotlight Challenge  
 **Challenge Location:** Diversity Writing Challenge  & Female Spotlight Challenge are located the Duel Monsters Writing Academy Forum on .  
 **Notes:** This takes place about seven years after graduation. Asuka is twenty-four.  
 **Summary:** She awakens in a valley inhabited by those who tend to a sacred flame. She knows nothing of who she is or what is going on. And to find out the answers, she must learn what it is to burn.

* * *

Kaori listened to the last of the reports concerning the injured and damaged, making mental notes the whole while. On the whole, she thought they'd managed through this reasonably well, given that they had very little experience with attacks of any kind, much less ones that reeked of magic to this degree.

As much as she loved and respected the Sacred Flame, and she very much didn't want it to allow any enemies into their chosen demesnes, perhaps they did need to work a bit more on what to do in cases like this. She would speak to the council about that.

"Kaori?"

She had almost expected the voice, now that she'd finished with everyone else. Akemi always knew when best to approach her.

"Yes?" She raised one eyebrow at the other warrior and beckoned for her to approach. If there was one thing that she regretted about leading everyone here it was that she and Akemi weren't as close as they'd been when they were children.

"I've a little more news about that injured woman that we found," Akemi told her, standing straight and rigid as if at parade ground attention. Kaori gestured for her to relax, but Akemi only tightened up further. Some things did not change. Unfortunately.

Well, she would work on that later. For now, she gave the other a curious look. "Is she awake?"

"She was earlier. But what we found out was this: she doesn't have any memories at all. No idea of who she is or where she came from. Not even her name."

Kaori frowned. "Can Tomomi figure out why yet? Is it an injury or a spell or something else?"

"Not yet, but she's working on it. There are ways to retrieve memories and I'm sure Tomomi intends to try as many as possible. For now, until we know what her real name is, she's choosing to go by Keahi."

"Keahi." Kaori pronounced the name carefully. It was a good name, a name that spoke of fire. "I'll see her when she's able to move around."

"Of course." Akemi gave a crisp salute and began to put her helmet back on. Kaori shook her head, not yet ready to dismiss her. "Kaori?"

"It's been too long since we spoke to one another," Kaori said, her voice a little softer than usual. "You've been very busy."

"I know. It's part of my job." Akemi replied, her voice as distant as Kaori's was soft. "I would be around more, but there's always so much that I need to do."

Kaori was not going to argue about that. She knew that Akemi wouldn't lie to her about it. She had her own responsibilities as well. As much as either of them would wish otherwise, they could not always take the time they wanted to do what they wanted.

A polite cough came from the door and Kaori bit back a long sigh. She'd hoped for more time with Akemi. But one of the priestesses of the Sacred Flame stood there, a worried crease to her forehead. That could not mean anything good at all.

Akemi saluted again and vanished out of the doorway before Kaori could say another word. Kaori didn't even try, but just waited to hear what the latest bad news could possibly be.

* * *

This time when she woke up, Keahi remembered things. Not her real name or where she'd come from, but the fact she didn't remember anything else and that she had a new name to go by and that she'd met three women who had all done their best to help her, without knowing anything of her.

It was a good thing to wake up to, when she had nothing else.

Keahi looked down at her hands, turning them over and over as she did. She'd been so busy being confused and disoriented when she'd been awake before that she hadn't really looked at herself. Now she made up for that.

 _They just look like… hands. Nothing special about them._ Long-fingered and slim, but with a slight hardness at the tips, that was what they were. Overall, she was slender, with a spill of golden-blonde hair coming over her shoulders. That was about all she could really tell of herself. She wanted more. She wanted to know what kind of life that she'd led to leave her with a body like this.

"Keahi?" Tomomi moved the curtain aside and peered in on her. "Are you hungry? I've got that food for you."

At the very mention of food her stomach demanded attention. Keahi's cheeks scorched faintly red. "Yes, please?" What else could she say? It wasn't as if she could hide it now.

Tomomi came all the way in, holding a tray in her hands, and waited for Keahi to sit up. A bowl of hot soup rested on the tray, sending up a most delicious aroma, along with a couple of slices of roughly cut bread and a cup of something else hot. Keahi wasted no time at all getting it inside of her. The cup turned out to be full of a delicious hot tea, lightly flavored with something sweet.

"I really don't want to say it's the best meal I've ever tasted, but …" Keahi said once she'd finished. "But it really is." She didn't want to make bad jokes about her memory loss. It just didn't feel right.

"Once you get your memory back, then you can decide just how good it is," Tomomi said, setting the now empty tray and dishes to the side. "And we can work on that soon enough. Whenever you're recovered enough to walk around for more than a few minutes. And that shouldn't take too long. Another day or so."

Keahi leaned her head back against the pillow. "Is there anything else that you can tell me?" She ached for information, for something that would fill up the emptiness inside of her. Tomomi settled onto a stool nearby, the tips of her wings fluttering as she thought.

"As far as we can tell, you're human. Which probably means that you come from another world," Tomomi said after a few moments. Keahi blinked, even more confused than before.

"Why …" She didn't know if she should ask why it was unusual that she was human or what they were if they weren't. For that matter, another _world_? So many questions rushed to her lips that all she could do was shake her head, trying to pick out a beginning.

Tomomi tilted her head a little. "That doesn't make any sense to you, does it?" When Keahi shook her head, the winged nurse settled herself more on the stool. "From what I know, this isn't normally known in many other worlds, but since you're here now, you _should_ know it. There are twelve different dimensions. No one I know of has been to all of them. Some of them have strange rules. I've heard that in some of them, when someone loses a duel, they die because of that."

There was that word again, duel. A warm shiver in the very depths of her said that she knew it, or had known it, or wanted to know it, but it remained in that large gap of emptiness.

"That… doesn't happen here?" She wanted to do something more than sit there and do an impression of a sponge, even if that was what she felt like.

"Not at all. Duels here are for pride and honor, but no one dies because of them," Tomomi said. The corners of her lips turned up. "I suppose I should explain what dueling itself is, shouldn't I?"

"Please?"

The angel reached into a pocket of her gown and pulled out a stack of cards. "This is my dueling deck," she said, turning it over so that Keahi could see it. The first card there, edged in green, held an image of a bottle with a deep red potion.

"Red Potion?" Keahi read the text; a spell card that increased one's life points by five hundred.

"And this is the real thing," Tomomi said, pointing to one of the bottles on the table nearby. "In many worlds, spell cards, traps, and monster cards are actual items and people. Not in every world, but this is one of those." She reached into another pocket and pulled out a card, turning it so Keahi could see the image on it.

Keahi's mouth dropped open and she looked from the card to Tomomi rapidly. The nurse nodded.

"That's me. I don't keep my own card in my deck, though. Akemi does. Her card is Tactical Warrior, but we consider that her title, not a name." She touched the text on the card. "Our effects are abilities that we have. Akemi increases the strength of her fellow warriors in battle and protects anyone who is on the battlefield with her."

"Oh." Keahi tried to get her head wrapped around all of this. "But what… what _is_ dueling? Is it just a game?"

"Yes and no. It depends on who you are and where you are. As I said, some worlds extract a penalty of one's life when you lose a duel. Those worlds are not pleasant ones. But in others, it can be a game to share with one's friends or a way to settle differences with one's enemies. That's how we use it here, when there are disagreements among us. If there's no other way to settle a matter, then the people involved duel one another." She carefully set the deck back in her pocket. "I wouldn't say that the winner is automatically right, but at least it's better than people killing one another over whatever is wrong."

Keahi could only nod. A part of her completely agreed with this. The rest of her just didn't know. She hated not knowing who she was or anything about the world around her, whatever that world might be. The image of a tiny ship tossing around on the waves of a gigantic ocean flickered through her mind.

"Is there anything else?" There had to be more, didn't there? That couldn't be everything.

Tomomi considered again, then jumped up to her feet. "I'll be right back. Maybe this would even help with your memory."

She'd gone through the curtain before Keahi could frame another word and was back before she could be confused for more than a few moments. In her arms she now carried what looked like a small collection of dirty laundry.

"This is what you were wearing when we found you," Tomomi said, putting it down on the bed. "It's part of why we guess you're from another world, because it's like nothing that we wear here." She ran a finger across it. "Our clothes tend to come in colors of flame and are of different materials, for one thing."

Keahi grasped at the clothes, turning them over and over. She didn't know what to call what they were made of, but it clearly wasn't what Tomomi's robe was of, and the colors were deep blue and white. A skirt, a blouse, and a jacket, along with a pair of boots and undergarments. Nothing more.

She checked through it all and her fingers brushed against something in a pocket on the jacket. Tugging it out revealed a picture, one that she brought into the lamplight.

"He's handsome," Tomomi said, moving so she could get a look as well. "Do you know who he is?"

Keahi stared at the image, scraping through everything in her mind. The picture showed a young man, maybe older than she was, maybe not, with thick brown hair and a lazy, easy grin. "No," she murmured, turning it over. On the back she saw something written: 10join.

A tiny crack opened in the shadows of her mind, and she could hear her own voice, or what she thought was her voice, speaking. "He writes it like this as a joke."

Who? Who was it? Who had she been talking to? The memory didn't fade, but nothing more came with it, and she tried hard not to crumple the photograph. "No," she whispered, trying so hard not to shake in fury. "I don't know. But I wish I did."

* * *

Misaki whistled cheerfully as she strolled her way around. Everywhere she looked, she could see people putting damage and debris to right. The people of this place wouldn't let something as small as this get them down. Fire was much harder to kill than that, and so were those who served the Sacred Flame.

She sketched a tiny salute toward the temple itself and could not help but wonder what further developments with Keahi there might be. She'd have to get back and check sooner or later.

"Misaki!"

Living in a place where virtually everyone one met had some kind of connection to fire meant that hearing voices with fire _in_ them was about as common as the sunrise. But when Hurik spoke, it was on a whole other level altogether. Misaki's eyes lit up at the approach of the flaming dragon.

"Hurik! Where have you been? You said you'd be back _days_ ago!"

The great dragon slithered up to her, bending down so she could rest one hand on the protruding horns. Not everyone could caress a Prominence Dragon like this, and Misaki took care not to abuse the privilege.

Of course, she and Hurik _had_ known each other since they were respectively born and hatched. Old friendships earned such privileges.

"I ran into some problems on the way back." Hurik curled up a little closer, a low crackle of annoyance now sliding around the words. "I need to tell Kaori about them, but then I saw you."

And of course Hurik would always choose to speak to a friend, unless something life-threatening loomed over them. Which did mean whatever it was, they probably weren't in danger of being eaten right away. Misaki could appreciate that. She had too much to do to let something eat her now.

"How dangerous is it?" A thought flickered through; perhaps whatever it was that disturb Hurik could have something to do with Keahi and her memory loss? Tiny flickers of flame danced on the edges of Misaki's fingers at the very thought.

Hurik considered before answering. "Probably nothing that we can't handle," was the answer after another few moments. "But it would be better if we had everything set up in advance."

"I won't keep you then," Misaki decided. "But come over to the infirmary later, would you?"

That got a very curious look from the fire dragon. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know if I should call it wrong," Misaki admitted, playing briefly with her flame flickers. "There's a stranger that we're taking care of there, though. Tomomi is, anyway." Her magic wasn't that of healing, though she would lend her strength if Tomomi needed her.

Hurik nodded, curiosity bright in the depths of those eyes. "All right. I'll check in with Kaori first, though."

Misaki nodded as well, deciding that 'sooner or later' for checking on the new arrival would probably work out better as 'sooner' if Hurik would be on the way. The dragon slithered along toward Kaori's home, while Misaki turned her steps toward the infirmary.

* * *

Tomomi watched in approval as Keahi drank down the new potion she'd crafted. Her fingers tensed on the edge of the bed as she waited, the other woman holding herself tense as well, waiting to see what the results might be.

"I don't think I'm going to throw up?" Keahi offered after a few minutes. "It didn't taste that bad, but I don't think I remember anything new."

Tomomi sighed, taking the cup back and setting it to one side. "I wasn't sure if it would. It should've helped you recover a little more, though. We can try some better methods then."

She'd probably been rushing it this time anyway. Keahi hadn't been awake that long, and Tomomi really thought it would be better to wait until she'd recovered much more of her strength. But the idea had flickered into her mind with a sense that this was what the Sacred Flame wanted, and she'd had to try.

She didn't often get feelings like that, and this seemed like it was one of those that just didn't pan out. It wouldn't be the first time and she didn't think it would be the last.

Keahi leaned back onto her pillows and closed her eyes. "I still don't feel sick," she said after a few more minutes. "But I feel… warmish? Am I getting a fever?"

"I'll check." Tomomi picked up a crystal wand and held it over her patient, then wove a spell with a few passes of her fingers and three words in a language only another healer would've been able to speak. The wand glowed a soft shade of blue, with only a hint of red at the very top. "It doesn't look like it. Your temperature may be a bit higher than you're used to, but with all these creatures of Fire around, I don't find that surprising."

Keahi's lips quirked for a few seconds. "You're probably right." She didn't open her eyes yet, but remained quiet and still, until Tomomi wondered if she'd fallen asleep. That proved wrong when she spoke again. "I was alone, wasn't I? No one around me when you found me." She still held that photograph that she'd found inside of her clothes.

"That's right." Tomomi carefully began to clean the desk next to Keahi's bed. She'd be ready to leave the infirmary in another day or two, though she still wouldn't be ready for huge amount of exercise. They would have to find a place for her to stay until everything could be sorted out about her. "There wasn't much evidence of how you got there, either. We can't even be certain if that was because of the earthquake or what."

Keahi nodded, clearly thinking all of this through. "Then either I was alone the whole time or I ended up there… some other way. If I had anyone with me, they would've stayed." She sounded more as if she wanted to believe this than if it were something she knew of her own memories.

"You're probably right," Tomomi said. It made sense; most people would look for an injured or lost friend or companion. So if no one was around, she'd either not had anyone there to start with, or she'd arrived via magic. How that tied into the earthquake, though…

Again Keahi stayed quiet, sorting through what little information she had. "If there are creatures of Fire, what about… water? Earth? Wind?" She picked each word carefully, uncertainty underwriting all of them. "Light?"

"Yes. When we say that someone is of an element, it means one of the six that are in Duel Monsters," Tomomi said, settling back into her chair. "Earth, air, fire, water, light, and darkness. Elements are different than types."

She pulled her deck out again and shuffled until she came to a monster card, pointing out the different parts of the text. Neither of them noticed anything else going on around them until someone coughed at the curtained entryway.

Misaki stood there, hat in her hands. "I just wanted to see how you're doing. One of my friends is going to come by once they've finished talking to Kaori. They might've found out something we have to deal with."

Keahi sat up quickly, eyes flashing with a sudden hope. "Do you think it has anything to do with my memories?"

"I can't say for sure. Hurik didn't really say what it was. But it won't hurt to try to find out, and you'd probably like Hurik anyway. Most people do." Misaki shrugged her shoulders. "Have you remembered anything anyway?"

She held up the picture she'd found. "I wouldn't say I remember, but I found this in my clothes."

Misaki leaned over to get a better look at it. "He's sort of cute. Don't think he's my type, though." She looked from the picture to Keahi once or twice. "You two are probably related, though. You look like each other a little. Mostly in the face."

Given that was all that one could see of the picture, there wasn't any real arguing with that point. Keahi tucked the picture back out of sight and worked to get herself sitting up. Just as she did, Hurik's familiar voice wended its way through the area.

"Misaki? I'm here."

Misaki leaned back out. "Down this way. Be careful not to burn anything."

That got a very curious blink out of Keahi. "Burn anything?"

"Hurik is a Prominence Dragon," Misaki said, moving out of the door to give the new arrival room. "They don't come inside very often, but Tomomi keeps this place as fireproof as possible."

"With most of you likely to set something ablaze if your soup isn't hot enough, it's just sensible."

Keahi chuckled at that, while Misaki just rolled her eyes. Just then, Hurik slithered into the room, looking this way and that until spying each occupant. Then Hurik came right over to Keahi, sniffing around, tongue flickering in and out.

"You are mostly human," Hurik said, in the usual to the point way that dragons of any type had. "But I can taste fire in you, too. Weak and fluttering and it could go out if you don't get fuel for it."

Keahi fidgeted, eyes going from Tomomi to Misaki and back again. "I hope you don't mean I need to eat firewood or something like that?"

"Of course not. Though if you ask me, alder is reasonably delicious if you can't find anything else. I'm more of a meat dragon myself." Hurik curled into a comfortable ball, compacting down until there wasn't any chance of setting something on fire. "You're like some of the priestesses here. They're fire. You're fire. You should go to the Sacred Flame and see what it has to say about you being here."

"How did you know I didn't know why I'm here?"

Hurik looked her up and down. "For one thing, you didn't know you were of fire when I said it. For another, I know the smell of every person in the valley and I _don't_ know yours. So you're new here. And another, you're not just human, you're human from another world. I can smell other things on you, things that aren't from this world. So you're not from here, you are fire but don't know if, and you wouldn't _be_ here if the Sacred Flame didn't allow in the first place."

 _The logic is hard to argue with,_ Tomomi thought, but she also agreed with the dragon's points.

"She can visit the Sacred Flame when she's strong enough to walk across the room _and_ endure talking to it," Tomomi asserted her authority as Keahi's healer for that.

"What do you mean, endure?" Keahi gave her a very curious look, tinged with confusion. Understandable, of course. Not everyone who lived here had spoken to the Sacred Flame anyway.

Misaki waved one hand, the other holding tight to her hat. "Talking to the Sacred Flame is almost impossible to describe. You just have to _do it_. But Tomomi's right about that. If you can't make it across the room, there's no way you could speak with the Flame and come out on your own two feet." She rubbed the back of her head with her free hand. "Truth to tell, I've heard stories about people in the peak of health who spoke to the Flame and came out barely able to string two words together. But it's better if you're at your best when you go in, at least. More chances you come out in your right mind."

Tomomi shook her head. "You're going to terrify her before she even can get across the room."

"No, I'm fine." Keahi pressed her lips together, determination in every line of her. "But I'll do it anyway. When I'm strong enough."

And from the look in her eyes, that would not be long at all.

* * *

Akemi patrolled the surrounding edges of the valley, all senses alert for anything that could be out of place. She held back a yawn by force of will; she'd been doing this since dawn and now the sun edged toward the western horizon. She would have to stop soon.

Soon wasn't now, though. Now she kept going, watching, waiting, searching.

 _It couldn't have been a normal earthquake. Normal earthquakes don't bring humans from other dimensions here._

What little they'd managed to gather indicated magical involvement, but not who had triggered the magic or if it had somehow happened on its own. Unlikely, every mage they had who knew anything about the situation, agreed, but _possible_ for it to happen on its own. After all, gates between worlds had been known to open and close without anyone opening them by force or spell.

 _And why just one human?_ That tugged at the back of her thoughts as well. Sending one to spy would be a reasonable answer, but still, this read like an accident of some kind to everyone, Akemi included. She'd met spies before, of multiple stripes, and Keahi didn't fit the mold. Someone could _pretend_ to lose their memories, but her injuries hadn't been faked at all. Everything didn't add up.

She hoped by the time she made it back to the village that they'd learned more about their visitor. Maybe if – when – Keahi got her memories back, she'd be able to shed some light of her own on this whole situation.

Akemi bottled up another yawn and focused her attention on the ground before her. Technically she was outside the boundaries of the village now, where the Sacred Flame's protection didn't extend, but that was usual for those who patrolled. It wouldn't do any good to just wander inside their territory if someone lurked just _outside_ of it. So they patrolled for a short distance outside the borders.

She almost missed it. A stray footprint, nothing more, a remnant of someone in armor passing. It could've been nothing more than a trace of an earlier patrol, if part of their training didn't include recognizing the footprints of everyone else in the village.

And this didn't match up to any of them.

Akemi paused and stared down at it, running through every bit of her training to figure out what this was. It wasn't that easy, not with fatigue creeping through her thoughts. Kaori would be very angry at her for doing this, but someone had to take the patrols and while they'd escaped any loss of life from the earthquake, most people were still busy putting the village back in order. Patrolling had to happen.

Whoever it was wore boots. Her eyes narrowed, tracing upward to search for more evidence. A small drip of water fell from a blueberry bush's leaf, the sight of the fruit reminding her that it had been far too long since her last meal. She'd been too busy trying to get back on patrol to pay attention to her stomach.

 _Why is there water? It hasn't rained and it's not the right time of day for dew, and there aren't any streams close enough._

The temperature didn't plunge this close to the valley, though it wasn't as warm as it was inside of it. But chill fingers made their way up her spine. It wasn't cold enough for ice to form and melt naturally, but if a creature of water were in the area…

Akemi's instincts screamed and she threw herself forward, rolling out of the way of the blast of ice-edged shards that blew toward her. She whirled, sword at the ready, and tensed at the sight of Dragon Ice standing there.

 _He's a tough one._ Akemi liked fighting creatures of ice. As a creature of fire, she considered herself to have a natural advantage over them. They never made it _easy_ , of course, which made it all the more entertaining.

Usually, anyway. Usually, she wasn't tired from a day of patrolling and wasn't on her own without any way to call for help.

"Any reason you're in the area? You know this is sacred to the Flame." Akemi would spare Dragon Ice if she could. It could just be passing through, meaning no harm. The Flame taught not to battle unless necessary, but when it was necessary, to _burn_.

Akemi was very good at burning.

Dragon Ice gave her one of those very cold looks that ice and water creatures were so very good at. It said nothing at all to answer her, but opened its mouth, blue shadows circling around there. Ice Dragon didn't breathe fire, of course, but now Akemi braced herself for battle.

One swipe of Ice Dragon's claws sent chills up her arm. She parried the blow skillfully, ignoring the pale frost creeping up her blade, and struck in her own turn, searching for any kind of weakness in the frozen scales. Such a weakness, if it existed at all, would be hard to find.

 _Don't have to kill it. Just have to make sure it leave us alone._ She didn't know how smart Dragon Ices were. She'd never met one before, though she'd heard a few things about them. They roamed alone, for the most part, with more than one seldom, if ever, appearing in the same area. Sometimes they teamed up with others for whatever strange purposes they had, but she'd never heard what those were.

They traded blows for several moments, and only too late did Akemi realize that Ice Dragon drew her away from the vicinity of the valley.

Even later than that, she recalled that she'd seen a _footprint_ , a booted foot, and Dragon Ice's feet didn't have boots.

There was an accomplice somewhere. Had to be.

She drew herself back, ready for one last blow, certain this would push the creature out of the way and let her return to search the area for whoever else it was.

But then there was cold wrapping around her from the back and she couldn't move or see or think at all...

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


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